Re: Re: Races charging competitive runners to be competitive

Like I said, it is not great and it is not something that I would wish for, yet I cannot see much cause for concern. I can use my own watch to time myself, I do not need to pay someone else to time me.

I guess I just see it as a trend that is disturbing. More races are treating competitive runners as second class citizens in more ways. In some cases, they know they have the competitive runners as a somewhat captive audience and are taking advantage of that. I view that as a problem.

It is what it is. Thomas Tusser put it best: a fool and his money are soon parted. As long as road racing remains an essentially unorganized sport then it will remain a wild west, wide-open with little uniformity. In the absence of a strong organizing body ensuring uniform regulation and standards, I cannot see sense in being concerned.

Whether or not it has proper oversight and regulation, I'm concerned because I'm affected as a consumer. While we can speak with our money, if these races are only interested in maximal participation, then they will continue to do things that go against the competitive runner because the competitive runner in all honesty is a significant minority and has different needs than the mass participant.